A minute passed by him as Griffin’s gaze swept across the sand dunes, warily scanning for any threats. To say that the terrain was unfavorable for him was an understatement. His feet had already sunk in part way into the sand and even taking a single step forward required him to fight against the friction and resistance that came with it’s granular nature. Not to mention, the fact that he was in full-armor did not help his agileness.

Earlier, he had wanted a decent-sized shield, but now he understood why Jun-Ra had said that it was a bad idea.

“Well,” Griffin muttered under his breath. “No use hesitating now. I’ll take being branded a heretic or a criminal any day over dying— again.”

He reached out towards an empty space before him and pulled out his Dagger of Descension. A moment later, the wicked dagger gleamed under the artificial light cascading down from a translucent ceiling. It was a bit hard to make out until his eyes adjusted to the illumination, after which Griffin could not only identify the roof of the prism but also make out the four walls that appeared as hazy distortions to him.

Though Griffin did not have remotely enough hiking experience to judge the distance, it did not take him long to determine that the prism was far larger than what he had originally anticipated, too vast for him to cross in a day, let alone fully explore.

‘Hey system,’ Griffin thought. ‘Do you reckon you can put a timer on my display until the sand begins to shift? I know you won’t outright help me, but a HUD isn’t that much to ask for, is it?’

Griffin didn’t expect the mental command to work, but for once, it… actually did.

[13:54]

[13:53]

[13:52]

“Huh,” he muttered under his breath. “Neat. While we’re on the topic of requests, can I please have King Arthur's sword or an assault rifle? Mythology or modern warfare, either works.”

There was no response from the system, but this was good enough. It also confirmed that there were other ways of modifying his ‘display’ to better suit his needs, but there was no time for that.

Enchanted sword in right hand, dagger of descension in his left, Griffin lumbered forward, not entirely without strategy. He was eyeing a particular sand dune to the north-east, one that was elevated higher than its neighbors and seemed stable enough to handle his weight. He was hoping for a better view and ideally, he wanted to take the initiative and attack before the beasts lurking in the shifting sands attacked him.

The next five minutes went by agonizingly slowly as even at the pace of a brisk walk, he had only managed to cover half the distance to the sand dune he was targeting. His armor was starting to seem like a mistake, considering how greatly his mobility was affected in the unexpected terrain.

It was only because Griffin’s gaze had been lowered to his feet, as he tried to navigate his way through the sand, did he notice it shifting.

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‘There was still time. It shouldn’t-’

The flicker of motion came far too quickly for him to react in time. Three beady red orbs gazed into his own and the next thing he knew, a creature that Griffin could only describe as an oversized, three-eyed, black-furred rodent bit it’s angular teeth into his left leg.

The resultant transfer of momentum lead to him falling on his back as he wildly screamed, reflexively slashing his sword out in a downward arc.

The resistance he felt told him that he had hit something, while the surprisingly lack of agonizing pain in his targeted leg told him that he had either lost it completely or his armor has held.

‘I’m going to assume the latter for now,’ He decided. ‘Where’s my—- damn it,’ Griffin realized that relying solely on his reflexes had cost him, as he had lost his grip over his sword.

Desperate, he switched his dagger to a reverse grip and held it defensively before his neck area, just in time to see the three-eyed rodent, which had now been reduced to a two-eyed rodent thanks to a long gash running across it’s left-most eye, or what remained of it.

The creature dripped an odd, viscous slime as it doggedly strode forward and Griffin felt the weight on his chest.

This time, he was ready.

He didn’t stab with the Dagger of Descension, because whilst the weapon was of high rarity, it had been reset to level 1 and he couldn’t improve it until he finished his calling quest. That meant that it was a normal, albeit ridiculously durable dagger, but Griffin’s goal wasn’t to kill the creature with a single-strike. He wasn’t sure if he even could.

So he punched forward with his dagger of descension in his hand, the kinetic energy powered by his four in physical with the cutting edge of his durable dagger striking in unison.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

The fourth strike finally knocked the creature away, off his body. Griffin no longer cared about the fact that he shouldn’t be able to move quickly with his armor—- he just did.

He wasn’t particularly angry as he let out an animalistic roar and threw himself onto the rodent-like creature, fist forward.

He dagger-punched it again and again, powered by the unholy cocktail of adrenaline, fear, system enhancement and just a smidgen of rage.

Finally, he drove the dagger’s pointed end into its throat.

[You have slain a level 6 Sirocco Nibbler.]

[You have slain a beast calling creature. Would you like to use Skill Thief (Beast) on it?

Available skills that can be stolen:

Poison Secretion [Mild Paralytic] Lv.1

Vicious Bite Lv. 1]

[Would you like to loot the creature?]

‘One down, nine to go,’ He thought to himself as he lay heavily panting on a bed of sand, finally feeling the rush of adrenaline leave him.

Until he noticed the time left on the timer he himself had told the system to assign.

“Oh shit,” He blurted out. Griffin reached for his sword, got back up on his two feet and took a moment to check his leg armor, finding it intact but with the new addition of bite marks.

His leg still worked. That was all he needed to know.

Griffin began to wildly run forward, with his armor clanging and his stamina rapidly being consumed, hoping that he had calculated the right direction.

A minute later, he was riding the wave that was the prism of shifting sands.